May 27 - 1 John 3
18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
I think that one of the reasons that Christianity is being pushed to the side by our culture is that we have made proper belief the essential element of faith. We tell those who are not Christians that they must believe as we do or else they are doomed. Then we tell them this is the unconditional love of God. I don't think that expressing the message of Jesus Christ in this manner resonates well with people. Our culture's response has been to start pushing Christianity aside.
When we express our faith through our actions as this verse teaches, I believe it changes the perspective on Christianity. When others see us living out our faith in Christ through feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and helping the homeless they see lives being transformed by living out the message of Jesus Christ. Then the message of the unconditional love of God makes sense.
This is not to say that we should not have solid theological understandings of who God is and our relationship with God. It is just that maybe our culture has grown weary of hearing how it should believe and responds to when it sees the beliefs lived out.
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In discussing with my 5 year old how we "see and know" the Holy Spirit is in us, as suggested by Ken, I explained that we see God through others actions of love. She seems to truly understand. We could learn from this and show others God's unconditional love through our actions rather than words, and my guess is they would "get this" as easily as she does.
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